Pliosaur: David Attenborough discovers giant skull of ancient sea monster

Sir David Attenborough has unearthed the skull of a huge sea monster, alive at the same time as the dinosaurs, while filming a new BBC documentary.

The 96-year-old conservationist has been exploring the history of the pliosaur, an incredible Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans which terrorised Dorset's Jurassic coast millions of years ago.

The creature had a huge 1.8m (6ft) jaw full of huge dagger-like teeth, and Sir David has revealed the skull they have found is "virtually undamaged" after all these years.

Fossil experts believe this pliosaur to be a completely new species, and are working at a secret location to try and excavate the skull, and uncover what secrets it might hold.

The documentary follows Sir David as he unearths the skull of the enormous prehistoric marine reptile which lived around 150 million years ago.

Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that dominated the seas.

Previous discoveries have led scientists to believe that they had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth.

Using four paddle-like limbs to propel their bulky bodies through the water, they could easily hunt prey, including other plesiosaurs.

In fact it's one of the most ferocious Jurassic predators ever known.

Joined by a team of top scientists and palaeontologists, Sir David is hoping to unlock clues about this top predator, from understanding how it looked and behaved, to uncovering the strategies it used to hunt and kill its prey.

The programme will also use cutting-edge visual effects sequences to bring the sea monster to life, showcasing its astonishing size and enormous strength.

The broadcaster and naturalist has spoken of how excited the team were to have found the skull in such good condition.

He said: "Frustratingly, skulls, which can tell us most about an animal, are only too easily smashed before fossilisation but this one is virtually undamaged and promises to reveal all kinds of new details about these terrifying hunters that preyed on ichthyosaurs."

Ichthyosaurs were not dinosaurs, but a separate group of water-based creatures.

Pliosaur skulls have been found before, including another on the Dorset coast in 2009, but it was in many pieces.

Over time experts were able to clean it up and put it back together, so it could go on display.

The programme, currently called Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster is being made for BBC One and iPlayer, and is expected to be out later this year.